


She Who Touched The Heavens

by Lina_Muro



Series: Skyward Bound [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, spoilers up to ep 60
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 10:11:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7711066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lina_Muro/pseuds/Lina_Muro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vex’ahlia hadn't seen Percy in weeks.</p><p>Well, alright. It had been around thirteen days. But that was quite a while when she was used to having her favorite human around to tease and talk to. Not to mention the insatiable curiosity that overtook her, knowing that he had vanished into the bowels of his castle in order to make a gift for her. (Part II)</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Who Touched The Heavens

Vex’ahlia hadn't seen Percy in weeks.

Well, alright. It had been around thirteen days. But that was quite a while when she was used to having her favorite human around to tease and talk to. Not to mention the insatiable curiosity that overtook her, knowing that he had vanished into the bowels of his castle in order to make a gift for her. 

So Vex had a lot of free time on her hands while they rested. The battle in the Feywild had taken its toll, and they needed the break. Certainly the time with Pike, Gilmore, and Allura was welcome, and the check back in with Whitestone and the refugees allowed them to tell of Syngorn’s plans to fire on Thordak in the coming weeks. The pebble that the Briarwoods had tried to summon Vecna with hummed silently in the caverns below, danger still temporarily ignored in the face of the Conclave’s threat. They had reached a bit of a standstill, a brief calm before the storm. 

It burned a bit that Percy would rather spend time in his workshop doing the gods only knew what. 

The half-elf tried to fill her time with other things. Vax was difficult now between his awkward thing with Keyleth (that he refused to explain to her!) and bragging about his wings (okay, Vax didn't brag per say, but he could certainly rub it in that somehow he had been the one to wind up with the wings.) Trinket she had brushed until his coat shone and was free of tangles and burrs. She polished and practiced with Fenthras, getting the feel of the ancient, powerful weapon. Keyleth taught her more about talking with animals. 

But she found her thoughts constantly flitting to the workshop, and its white-haired occupant. She had yet to have a chance to really ask him about the Barony that he had given her. He had brushed off her questions so casually in Syngorn, one would have thought that it meant nothing to the silly man. Vex’ahlia knew better. 

And that he had found her on the roof, and that they had shared the strange, quiet embrace, devoid of the casual flirtations that had marked their previous exchanges…among so much else that had changed recently....well, it left Vex with more than a few questions. 

So on the second day, she walked passed the door, quite casually. At least four times throughout the day. Each time it was shut. She tried not to let it bother her, and it took all her willpower not to rattle to see if it was locked. 

On the fifth day, she knocked on his door to no answer. Pressing her ear close, she could hear the gentle crackling of the fire, pounding of metal. He was inside, of that she was certain. Trying the door, she found the handle secured. She huffed as she left, unaccustomed to being ignored by the man who often told her that she was his favorite. 

On the eighth day, she caught a glimpse of Percy in the hallway, just the fluttering of his blue coat round the corner. She hurried to catch up, his name on her lips, itching to have a few stolen moments, or a hint as to his gift (was he even making something for her? His avoidance gave her pause. Perhaps he had just said that to cover up that he had stopped paying attention when she was talking on the roof.) She missed him by a fraction of a second, the door to his workshop shutting and locking. She chose not to knock. 

By the tenth day she was pacing, incensed that Percy wasn’t coming out, and convinced that he was avoiding her because of their intimate moment. It was Scalan who asked her why she was so upset and if she needed to break something to calm herself down. Instead she went flying on her broom, practicing dodging projectiles thrown by Grog. Sweaty and puffing by the end of the session, it did nothing to cool her temper. 

Day twelve, she found herself crouched outside of the workshop door, listening carefully. It was silent inside save for the low burn of the fire. This suggested Percy was out or asleep. So the little half-elven woman pulled from her pocket her brother’s lockpicks, and set to work. But try though she might, Vex couldn’t get the door to budge. It seemed that Percy had gone out of his way to proof the lock against the twins, much like he had in Greyskull Keep. Frustrated, she kicked the door on the way out. 

Vex didn’t completely understand why she was so upset that Percival was suddenly ignoring her. She had almost thought...but no, it certainly didn’t make sense now. It certainly didn’t _matter_ now. She wouldn’t even consider it. 

Even though strange, tender moments between her and Percy had become more frequent in the last few weeks. 

Even though her guard had come down more in his company. 

Even though his speeches were less calculated around her. 

No, it really didn’t mean anything. Not if he could ignore her for so many days when there was actually peace to be had, time they could have spent together. 

She found herself alone on the roof again, claimed by the same melancholy that had driven her up there the last time. The moon was waxing, and she curled around herself as she watched it rise, trying to sort through her confused thoughts, and her anger at Percy. 

He had broken through her carefully crafted walls. She had shared with him deep hurts that she fought so hard to keep buried. Not only their moments in the Feywild, her anxiety about entering Syngorn, but that night when she told him about her mother. Percy had become...a comfort to her. She had fought so hard to protect his home, to give him the closure he needed, to save him from Orthax; she had gotten through to him when no one else could the night they fought his demon.

Surely she had come to mean something to him as well? 

But that was an assumption, and perhaps that’s where the pain had come from. She had become complacent with him, too trusting as her walls crumbed to his unassuming moments of kindness; too caught up in in what her brother had called “His charms” to really ask herself if he meant any of it. Percival was a grand liar after all...

She really couldn’t rely on anyone but her brother, could she? But even Vax seemed to have slipped off to his own world. Between the Raven Queen and Keyleth, there were moments that Vax seemed like a stranger to her. Maybe he was growing up, leaving her behind, and wasn’t that a terrifying thought? Without Vax to care about her, who was left? She didn’t want to be left alone, and the others in Vox Machina all had their own paths. 

But she really had thought, for just a moment there, that Percy cared about her. 

Like she did him.

Tears had started trailing down her cheeks when a voice suddenly interrupted her realization. Somewhere along the line, Percy had stopped being one of the group to her, and was something...more. 

“Ah, there you are. I was looking for you, and the others said they hadn’t seen you for a while and I thought---Vex’ahalia? What’s the matter?” 

There was a rustle of fabric and clang of metal as Percival crossed to her side. His hands were on her shoulders. “Vex?” He shook her gently. “Are you alright? Come on darling, look at me.” 

It was the endearment, her token endearment, that finally brought dark eyes to meet searing blue. Her heart began to beat wildly in her chest as she stared at him. His gaze was intense behind his spectacles, hair askew and days of stubble strewn across his boyish face. 

A thin smile cracked across his lips as she responded to him and she swallowed, unsure what to say. The places where his hands touched her seemed to sear beneath his calloused fingers. 

“I’m fine,” she finally choked out, pulling away slightly even as she wanted to be closer to him. Her heart hurt now that she had admitted to herself her feelings for the oblivious man, trying to come to terms that he would never feel the same. 

A mild look of concern crossed his face as he sat on the parapet beside her. His hands fell to his sides, and he fidgeted nervously. “You certainly don’t look fine.” 

“Well what would you know?” she snapped. He started back like she had hit him. “It’s not like you want to be around any of us when things are fine anyway.” 

He stiffened, and his face closed off suddenly, all concern and gentleness hardened behind his icy countenance. “And how did you come to that conclusion?” 

“As if it were hard to notice that you disappear into your workshop whenever we have a break,” she continued, fueled by the heartbreak. She wrapped her arms self-consciously around herself. “Or that you can’t be bothered to share a meal or even answer the door when someone knocks.”

“I was busy,” came his curt reply. 

“You’re too busy for the people that care about you? Too busy for me? You said I was your favorite, and even I get ignored!” 

There was a pause in which Vex could feel Percy’s calculating gaze on her. She tried not to shiver, staring at the moon to avoid his keen eyes. She instantly wanted to swallow the words back. ‘Too much,’ she thought. ‘You gave away too much.’ Now he would surely run.

“You thought I was avoiding you,” he said softly, matter-of-factly, his offense at her outburst suddenly gone. 

“Well, weren’t you?” she challenged meekly. 

“No, I wasn’t.” He approached her with his hands up, like one would approach a wild animal. He reached for her hands, taking them gently in his. “I'm a fool who gets too caught up in his work. You know that, Vex. And I...Well I wanted this to be perfect for you.” 

His calloused fingers traced small circles against hers, and she felt herself relaxing. She met his gaze hesitantly, and he smiled gently at her, bring her hands to his lips and pressing a chaste kiss across her knuckles. 

“Would you like to see what I’ve made for you, dear?” 

She nodded, not quite trusting her words, and he pulled away to kneel down by the cloth he had dropped before. It was wrapped haphazardly around some metal contraption. Her curiosity piqued, she followed him as he unwrapped it beside the wall of the roof. 

Laid bare before her was a magnificent telescope. The long cylinder was about as long as her arm and shaped from brass. She could see a hint of design work carved lightly into its surface, but couldn’t make out the shapes and figures in the dark. Percy raised it onto a tripod of dark wood, and began to fiddle with the dials a little. 

“When I was young,” he said quietly, hands nervously moving up and down the optical tube. “I was doing a star study myself. But I was certainly more interested in how telescopes worked than the actual use of them. I always like to make things. This was one of my early designs and I asked Gilmore to help with the optics. You see, most telescopes have a dial to adjust for focus, but can only see so far, and I thought that an enhancing enchantment on the glass lenses could help with-” 

Vex’ahlia put her hand over his mouth and knelt beside him, stunned as her fingers ghosted over the aperture. “You built me a telescope?”

Percy nodded, looking a little uncertain, or maybe nervous about presenting the gift to her. “I hope that’s alright.” She could feel the tears starting again. “You just spend so much time trying to get into the sky or looking at it, I thought perhaps you might like to have something to bring you a little closer without the risk of falling.” 

A strangled laugh escaped from her lips and she wiped away the tears clinging to her eye lashes.  
“That’s part of the fun.” 

The young Lord settled himself into a seated position and shot her a grin, leaning back against the wall. “Yes, well, some of us prefer you in one piece.” 

Vex’ahlia tucked herself against him without thinking, letting her tactile nature guide her. Percy’s arm came to rest around her. They sat for a while in their companionable silence, Vex tucked tightly against his side, his arms holding her snugly against him. There was a comfort about the embrace after the anger and miscommunication. 

As the moon rose higher in the sky, Percy began to explain to her about the telescope: how he had designed the carriage to house the magical lenses that would allow her to see deeper into the sky than she ever could with her eyes alone, how difficult it was balancing the mount and the tripod, how many glass lenses he dropped or warped or broken, how he had worked to carefully carve tiny bears and star-figures of Vox Mochina into the metal. He wanted it to be like no other telescope in the history of Tal’Dorei, he told her. One of a kind for a woman like no other. 

Vex’ahlia was torn between marveling at the beautiful contraption before her, and the man who had built it. 

“I’m sorry I yelled at you, Percy.” 

“It’s alright. I need to be yelled at sometimes.” He paused. “I’m sorry that I hurt you by disappearing.” 

“I missed you, is all,” she admitted quietly, tucking her face almost shyly into his shoulder. “We’ve been through so much and I…”

“I know.” He sighed,and then pressed his lips into her hair. “I’m just an idiot sometimes.” 

“As long as you’re around to be my idiot that’s all I care about.” 

“Yes, dear.”


End file.
